The shared emotional euphoria of watching Batkid save San Francisco has slowly but surely waned over the past few days, and in its wake, there have emerged predictable questions about the time, energy and effort required to give young Miles Scott his Make-A-Wish-Foundation-sponsored dream of being a superhero for a day. In short, the overwhelming mass of people who reached out to help and be a part of the big day required crowd control, sound systems, video equipment, an increased police presence and more, all of which required money to pull off.
According to The Associated Press, Christine Falvey, the communications director for the city of San Francisco, met with the media today and talked on the record about the financial implications. Apparently, the big day cost the city $105,000. Many of the props involved and manpower hours were donated for the good cause. The Make-A-Wish Foundation had previously worked out arrangements to ferry Scott and his family into San Francisco and to taxi the boy around in a Lamborghini Batmobile. Moving forward, the organization would like to use some private donations to completely deflect the financial cost of the event.
It’s easy to see why there would be some reasonable, dispassionate people out there who would like to know how the accounting shook out. After all, when taxpayer money is involved, the general public has the right to know exactly what’s going on, especially when it’s for a perk catered to one person. The thing about this particular event however, is that it wound up being for more than just one person. Yes, Miles Scott was the one running around as Batkid, but all of the people cheering and following along on the Internet were getting something out of it too. They were getting reminded of what a just and decent and beautiful place the world can be. They were getting reminded how incredible it is to watch a child have the best day of his life.
Here’s to hoping people step up and donate to the Make-A-Wish Foundation in order to make sure there is not one single negative anyone can say about Batkid saving San Francisco. I think I speak for most of the world when I say I’d like it to be an exclusively happy memory.
Here’s some pictures from Batkid’s big day…
